Bingo
by LittleDragon94
Summary: For the "Bingo Card Drabble Competition". #3 Arthur Weasley (Friendship). #21 Parvati Patil (Indigo). #25 Harry Potter (Trust).
1. Friendship

_**For the Bingo Card Drabble Competition**_

**_Character: Arthur Weasley_**

**_Prompt: "Genre: Friendship"_**

**_Word Count: 746_**

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Arthur Weasley remembered the first time he had met Alastor "Mad-Eye" Moody.

It had been at the funeral of Fabian and Gideon Prewett - Arthur's brothers-in-law. The brothers had been killed by Death Eaters just before the end of the First Wizarding War.

Arthur stood beside his wife, holding her gently as she sobbed onto his shoulder. Bill and Charlie, their eldest sons, were putting on brave faces for their younger siblings who didn't really know what was going on in their young ages. Bill cradled newborn Ginny, who slept peacefully in his arms. Charlie held one year-old Ron. Great-Aunt Muriel carefully watched five year-old Percy and three year-old twins Fred and George.

Arthur had only ever seen Moody around the Ministry. They'd never spoken, so Arthur had doubted that Moody even knew his name. Everyone knew Moody's name, of course. He was the most famed Auror of the time, personally responsible for filling half the cells in Azkaban.

So Arthur was surprised when Moody limped over to the Weasley clan to pay his respects and addressed Arthur by name.

'Fabian and Gideon spoke highly of you Arthur,' Moody informed him. 'Said the only things they were afraid of losing were each other and their sister.' Molly sobbed loudly and retreated back into Arthur's arms, clutching at his robes. 'They were reassured that Molly has you to look after her in their stead.'

Moody reached out a gnarled hand to firmly shake Arthur's.

And so began years of mutual respect that, over the next decade, evolved through corridor conversations and dinner invitations into trust and friendship.

The years passed and Moody retired from the Auror Office while Arthur continued working in the Misuse of Muggle Artefacts Department.

Arthur helped out Moody when he had a run in with the Muggle law. Arthur visited Moody when he was recovering from being held prisoner in his own trunk by Barty Crouch Junior.

When You-Know-Who returned, bringing the promise of an inevitable war, Arthur and his family relocated to 12 Grimmauld Place to join the reformed Order of the Phoenix.

Arthur and Moody shared a number of duties and watched each other's backs. Both knew the chances of either of them coming out of the war unscathed, but neither spoke about it. Arthur was comforted in the knowledge that no one in the Order would let anything happen to his children if the worst happened.

Mad-Eye visited Arthur in hospital after Arthur was bitten by You-Know-Who's snake.

Then the Second Wizarding War officially began, and Arthur was promoted.

At Dumbledore's funeral, the two friends gathered around Dumbledore's white tomb, both grieving for their fallen leader.

Arthur wondered how many more people had to die before You-Know-Who was defeated again. He didn't realise that one of his oldest and truest friends would be one of them.

Out in the garden of the Burrow it was Molly's turn to comfort Arthur.

"Mad-Eye's dead." Bill had told his father, looking him directly in the eye, and Arthur didn't know how to react. Memories surged through his mind.

_Mad-Eye Moody could not be dead_.

Arthur haltingly told Fred and George the news. Then he found himself sitting on the sofa, half a glass of Firewhisky in his hand, the rest of it burning through his body, driving out his grief.

Every fibre of Arthur's being was telling him that Bill was lying. That he hadn't seen Mad-Eye hit by the killing curse and knocked from his broom.

Arthur stared numbly into space while the others talked about what happened. When he came to, Bill and Lupin had gone to recover Mad-Eye's body. Then Harry was talking about leaving and his wand doing magic by itself. Arthur tried to help, but his heart wasn't in it.

That night, and for the days after, Arthur expected Moody to come stomping through the door, making everyone jump by shouting "CONSTANT VIGILANCE" at every opportunity, rolling his magical eye at Tonks and glaring at Fred and George.

In the few snatches of time he could get alone in his shed, while Molly fussed about wedding preparation, Arthur thought back to all the times he had spent with Moody. How many things had that tough old boot helped Arthur with over the years? How many scrapes with the Muggle law had Arthur got Moody out of?

The more time he thought about it, the more Arthur realised: he would never again find a friend quite like Alastor Moody.

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_**Runner up in this round :)**_


	2. Indigo

_**For the Bingo Card Drabble Competition**_

**_Character: Parvati Patil_**

**_Prompt: "Indigo"_**

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Parvati Patil's aura was indigo. At least that's what Professor Trelawney had told her.

According to _Unfogging the Future_ indigo is the colour of intuition, perception, and the higher mind. Well that sure summed up Parvati. She was quick witted, had good educated instincts, saw things more clearly than others, and was actually pretty clever.

Of course no one noticed that Parvati had a brain when Hermione Granger was in every one of her classes – until fifth year, at least – then people thought she and Lavender were dumb for their interest in Divination. But what did they know?

When Parvati thought back to those ten minutes or so between lessons that she had decided to check what an "indigo aura" signified, she now realised just how right Professor Trelawney had been:

"_Indigo is a defender of people's rights to the end._" Or almost to the end, as it had been. Having fought in the Second War, and come so close to death a number of times in the Battle of Hogwarts, Parvati had never doubted that what she was doing was right, even when she had lost her best friend. Parvati had fought that battle to stop injustice, to help others, to give others the right to a life without terror. Leading onto another aspect of her aura: _"Indigo is idealistic"._

Parvati knew she was idealistic. She had known it since she first started Hogwarts – so full of hope for the future, of what she would achieve, of the impact she would make on the Wizarding World.

Sure, she might not be Hermione Granger (or even her twin sister, Padma), but Parvati Patil had made her mark on the world.

It had been years since the end of the Second War and Parvati was working for the re-organised Ministry of Magic – in the office of the Minister for Magic, Kingsley Shacklebolt, no less.

So much had changed since the days that Parvati had been at school, and it as most definitely a better time to be alive.

Parvati put down her eagle-feather quill, folded up the parchment letter she had just signed and slipped it into its envelope. With a flick of her wand Parvati Patil sealed the letter with a purple Ministry stamp.

She cracked a small smile when she saw the stamp.

Not purple_. Indigo_.

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_**I'm really not too happy with this one, but hey ho.**_


	3. Trust

_**For the Bingo Card Drabble Competition**_

**_Character: Harry Potter_**

**_Prompt: "Never trust anything that can think for itself if you can't see where it keeps its brain!"_**

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There were times in Harry's life where he remembered certain phrases that people had said to him over the years. Usually they were scraps of advice that he could do with remembering a bit more often. But this time it was advice that wasn't even for him.

He remembered hearing it well. It had been during his second year at Hogwarts, just after he had defeated Tom Riddle and the basilisk, rescued Ginny from the Chamber of Secrets, and flown back to school hanging onto the tail feathers of Fawkes the phoenix with Ron, Ginny and Gilderoy Lockhart. They had stumbled into Professor McGonagall's office, covered in blood and grime and sweat.

Mr Weasley had reminded Ginny to "never trust anything that can think for itself if you can't see where it keeps its brain!"

It was many years later now, and that memory popped unannounced into Harry's mind. He chuckled to himself, wondering how events would have been different had he listened to that bit of advice from his now father-in-law.

Back in first year - if Harry hadn't trusted the Mirror of Erised to show him the location of the Philosopher's Stone - would Quirrell and Voldemort have ever got the Stone? Would they have given up and just killed Harry outright? Would Dumbledore have shown up in time to defeat Quirrell and Voldemort?

True enough, in second year Ginny shouldn't have trusted a diary that wrote back. But equally, Harry shouldn't have trusted the same one that showed him a memory framing one of his best friends for murder. But if he hadn't would he and Ron have been at Hagrid's when Fudge came to arrest him? Would they then have followed the spiders to Aragog's lair? Would Harry have come to the realisation that Moaning Myrtle had been the girl who was killed all those years ago?

The same goes for the Marauder's Map, before Harry discovered that it had been created by his father. If Harry had handed it in, just like Hermione had told him he should, Harry would never have seen Pettigrew on the map, and so Lupin wouldn't have had the map to see Harry, Ron and Hermione heading for the Shrieking Shack. Who knows whether events would have worked out quite the same if Lupin hadn't come to help Sirius kill Peter.

Skipping ahead a few years to possibly the most important moment in Harry's life - if Harry hadn't trusted in the Elder Wand to recognise him as its true master, would he have been able to defeat Voldemort? It still haunted him that, if the Elder Wand hadn't turned Voldemort's own curse against him, Harry would have had to cast the killing curse. He didn't know if he could have, even for Voldemort. Or even if he could have - could he live with himself afterwards? Knowing that he had directly taken someone's life, despite all of Voldemort's crimes.

Considering everything that had happened over the years, and how just changing one little thing could alter an entire course of events, Harry could safely say that Mr Weasley's advice to Ginny was one piece of advice he did well not to follow. Because regardless of whether you could see its brain or not, it was Harry's blind faith and trust in the world that had saved him - and his friends, and the entire Wizarding World - countless times.


End file.
